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Hume on Meaning
- Hume Studies
- Hume Society
- Volume 32, Number 2, November 2006
- pp. 233-252
- 10.1353/hms.2006.a383387
- Article
- Additional Information
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Hume's views on language have been widely misunderstood. Typical discussions cast Hume as either a linguistic idealist who holds that words refer to ideas or a proto-verificationist. I argue that both readings are wide of the mark and develop my own positive account. Humean signification emerges as a relation whereby a word can both indicate ideas in the mind of the speaker and cause us to have those ideas. If I am right, Hume offers a consistent view on meaning that is neither linguistic idealism nor positivism but a genuine alternative to these, one that deserves to be taken seriously.